A complaint to the FTC is not a file. A file is a dated stack a judge can read.
In fiscal year 2025 the FTC counted more than 2.6 million National Do Not Call complaints. Ranked by complaints per 100,000 residents, the top ten were Arizona, Tennessee, Nevada, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Colorado, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Virginia. Florida also sat near the top in raw volume. Those rankings are unverified consumer reports. They are a heat map, not a verdict.
What follows is the evidence layer that sits under every Playbook in those states — plus the federal rules telemarketers still have to follow no matter which area code they spoof.
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Knowledge Protects. You Decide.
First: the federal floor every telemarketer still has to honor
Before the state sections, remember the national rules. They are the same in Flagstaff and Norfolk.
- TCPA, 47 U.S.C. § 227 and 47 C.F.R. § 64.1200 — autodialed and prerecorded marketing generally need qualifying consent; texts are treated as calls; private damages are commonly described as $500 per violation and up to $1,500 if willful.
- National Do Not Call — after 31 days on the Registry, covered sales solicitations to that number are generally off-limits unless an exception applies. Telemarketers must scrub against a list no more than 31 days old.
- Consent revocation (in effect since April 11, 2025) — STOP, quit, end, revoke, opt out, cancel, or unsubscribe on a text is treated as a stop request. Companies generally have ten business days to honor a reasonable revocation.
- The “one-to-one consent” rule is not in force. The Eleventh Circuit vacated it in 2025. Do not write your file as if that rule still exists.
- STIR/SHAKEN and caller-ID rules — carriers are supposed to authenticate calls. A “Spam Likely” label is not your exhibit. Your log is.
- FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule — hours (generally 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. local time for covered outbound sales calls), DNC scrubbing, robocall-consent limits, disclosures, recordkeeping.
Register at donotcall.gov. Report unwanted calls there and at the FCC complaint center. Reporting helps agencies. It does not build your court file.
The evidence kit that works in every one of the ten
Judges do not want a novel. They want exhibits that answer four questions about each call or text:
- When did it happen?
- What number showed on the screen?
- What was the pitch?
- Why was it not allowed (no consent, on the DNC list, you said stop, it was prerecorded, it was spoofed)?
Save these, in this order:
- National DNC confirmation — print or PDF with the date your number landed on the Registry. The 31-day clock starts there.
- Phone log — carrier PDF or a screenshot series that shows date, time, inbound number, and duration. One contact card per campaign, even when they rotate numbers. That is Chapter 2 of every Playbook.
- Screenshots of the ringing screen and the recents list — the number on the glass is the fact.
- Voicemail files — do not delete the robocall. Export it. Note the date.
- Texts — full thread, including your STOP and their reply. Florida has a special STOP-and-wait rule for text damages under its state statute.
- The webform if you ever requested a quote — URL, date, exact consent language.
- A one-page timeline — numbered facts, no adjectives. “February 3, 2026, 6:14 p.m., inbound 602-XXX-XXXX, prerecorded solar pitch, no consent.”
- Carrier records — many courts treat regularly kept phone bills as business records if you can say what they are and that they are a fair copy. Authentication is Rule 901 in federal court and the state twin of that rule.
Recording is not the first exhibit. Screenshots and carrier logs usually are. Recording is where consumers get hurt, because some of these ten states treat a secret tape as a crime.
Safe habit in every state: if you stay on the line, say out loud, “I am recording this call.” Then keep talking only if you are comfortable. If you hang up, you still have the log.
The ten states
Figures below are FTC FY 2025 DNC complaints per 100,000 residents.
1. Arizona — 1,028 per 100k (74,752 complaints)
Highest complaint rate in the country last year.
What to save: 480 / 602 / 623 / 520 / 928 numbers on one contact card. Arizona is generally a one-party recording state (A.R.S. § 13-3005). That does not mean you should record every robocall. It means a recording you made as a participant is less likely to be the problem than in Florida.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus Arizona’s consumer-fraud chapter and telephone-solicitation provisions. Federal court sits in the District of Arizona. State cases go through Superior Court.
Evidence tip: Arizona judges still want the log authenticated by the person who printed it. “This is my Verizon PDF from the day after the calls” is the foundation sentence. Pair it with the DNC printout.
Playbook: Arizona Playbook.
2. Tennessee — 1,017 per 100k (71,061 complaints)
What to save: 615 / 629 / 901 / 731 / 423 / 931. Tennessee keeps a state Do Not Call list in addition to the federal one. Register both. The federal printout is what a TCPA file usually leans on. The state list is a second exhibit.
Recording: generally one-party.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus Tennessee Consumer Protection Act and the state telephone-solicitation / DNC chapter. State court is Circuit or Chancery depending on the county and the claim.
Evidence tip: Write the pitch in the same words they used. “Reduce your debt” and “Medicare review” were among the FTC’s national top topics. Tennessee complaints track that mix. Your timeline should say the words, not “scam.”
3. Nevada — 960 per 100k (30,159 complaints)
Small population, loud complaint rate. 702 / 725 / 775.
Recording warning: Nevada is widely treated as all-party for telephone calls (NRS 200.620). Do not secretly record a 702 pitch and assume it comes in. Announce it, or skip the tape and keep the log.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus Nevada Deceptive Trade Practices Act (NRS 598.0903 et seq.) and the Attorney General’s telephone-solicitation chapter. District Court and the District of Nevada.
Evidence tip: Local-presence spoofing is the Las Vegas special. Ten different 702 numbers and one pitch is the exhibit. That pattern is in Chapter 3 of the Nevada Playbook line.
4. Illinois — 943 per 100k (119,697 complaints)
Recording warning: Illinois is an all-party state for private conversations (720 ILCS 5/14-2). A secret recording can become your problem instead of theirs. Say you are recording, or do not record.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus the Illinois Telephone Solicitations Act and Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Circuit Court. Northern, Central, and Southern Districts of Illinois in federal court.
Evidence tip: Illinois courts are picky about foundation. Name the app, the date you exported the log, and that the screenshot is a fair copy of what appeared on your phone. Do not crop out the timestamp.
Playbook shelf: Illinois Playbook.
5. Florida — 933 per 100k (204,702 complaints)
Not the highest rate. One of the highest piles.
Recording warning: Florida is all-party (Fla. Stat. § 934.03). Secret recordings of private calls can be a felony and can be kept out of evidence. Announce, or rely on the log.
State statute to know: Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, Fla. Stat. § 501.059. Texts count as telephonic sales calls. For a text damages claim under that section, the statute now requires the called party to reply STOP and then wait 15 days. If they keep texting after that window, that is the private-action on-ramp the current text describes. Do not skip the STOP if your file is a Florida text file. Courts have also been fighting over how damages stack, so do not treat $500 as automatic math.
Florida also runs a state DNC list. Register both.
Evidence tip: Save the STOP text and the fifteenth-day follow-up texts as Exhibit A and B. Then the call log. Then the DNC printouts.
Playbooks: Florida Playbook for the calls; Florida Consumer Justice if the sale itself was the lie.
6. Ohio — 903 per 100k (106,378 complaints)
216 / 440 / 330 / 419 / 614 / 740 / 937 / 513.
Recording: generally one-party (R.C. 2933.52).
Rules in the background: TCPA plus Ohio’s telephone-solicitor registration chapter (R.C. 4719) and Consumer Sales Practices Act. Common Pleas / municipal court depending on amount. Southern and Northern Districts of Ohio.
Evidence tip: Ohio registration and bonding rules are a company-side duty. Your job is still the log. If you later look the seller up on the Secretary of State site, print that page the day you look. Stale printouts start arguments.
7. Colorado — 894 per 100k (51,924 complaints)
Colorado keeps its own No-Call List (C.R.S. § 6-1-901 et seq.). Register state and federal. Two printouts.
Recording: generally one-party.
Evidence tip: Colorado Rule of Evidence 901 is the authentication gate for screenshots. “I took this photo of my lock screen at 7:02 p.m.” is better than a floating crop with no clock. Distinctive details — your number at the top of the carrier bill, the same 720 showing on two devices — help.
8. New Jersey — 885 per 100k (82,038 complaints)
201 / 551 / 973 / 862 / 908 / 732 / 848 / 609 / 640 / 856.
Recording: generally one-party.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act (N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et seq.) and the state telemarketing chapter. Superior Court, Law Division. District of New Jersey.
Evidence tip: CFA cases live or die on the paper trail of the pitch. If they promised a “neighbor” 201 and the voicemail is a robocall mill, keep both. New Jersey discovery answers often run on a 35-day clock in state court. That is a Playbook detail, not something to invent in a blog comment.
Playbook: New Jersey Playbook.
9. North Carolina — 873 per 100k (92,392 complaints)
Recording: generally one-party.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 75-100 to 75-105 (Telephone Solicitations) and Chapter 75 unfair-practice provisions. Private rights under the state telephone chapter exist; read the current text with counsel because exemptions and damages are not the federal TCPA copied and pasted.
Evidence tip: North Carolina juries get a clean story. Date, number, words, DNC date, STOP date. Leave “I was so angry” off the timeline.
10. Virginia — 871 per 100k (75,408 complaints)
Recording: generally one-party (Va. Code § 19.2-62).
New-ish rule to log: as of January 1, 2026, a STOP reply to a sales text is treated as a do-not-contact request the sender is supposed to honor for a long statutory period (reported as at least ten years). Screenshot the STOP. Keep it forever. That screenshot is the exhibit.
Rules in the background: TCPA plus Virginia’s telephone-privacy / solicitation statutes. Circuit Court and the Eastern or Western District of Virginia.
Evidence tip: Virginia files look like every other good file: DNC date, STOP date, log, voicemail. Do not skip the text thread because “it was only a text.” Texts are calls under the federal rule and sales texts under many state rules.
How exhibits usually get in (the consumer version of the evidence code)
You do not need to say “Rule 803(6)” out loud. You do need the idea.
- You can testify about what you saw on your own phone. That is personal knowledge.
- A carrier bill or exported log is often offered as a regularly kept record. You say what it is, where it came from, and that it is a fair copy.
- A screenshot is authenticated by the person who took it: date, device, that it has not been edited.
- A voicemail is the same: “This is the file I downloaded from my phone on March 2.”
- Hearsay objections show up when you try to use the other company’s words for the truth without a hook. A recording of them pitching you, if lawfully made, is often their own statement. An illegal secret tape in an all-party state can be dead on arrival.
If a judge asks “how do you know,” the answer is never “everyone knows these calls are fake.” The answer is Exhibit A, page 1.
What not to do
- Do not secretly record in Florida, Illinois, or Nevada phone calls and assume the court will thank you.
- Do not photoshop a log.
- Do not throw away the phone and then try to rebuild dates from memory.
- Do not treat an FTC complaint number as proof the defendant made the call.
- Do not skip STOP on a Florida or Virginia text file.
- Do not mix a Consumer Justice receipt case into a robocall exhibit list.
Where to go next
If the harm is the ringing phone, open Series One: RoboCall Justice (Enhanced Edition) and the Playbook for your state at telejusticepro.com/collections/books.
If the harm is the ad that did not match the box, open Series Two — MMPA Justice, California Consumer Justice, Texas Consumer Justice, Florida Consumer Justice, Georgia Consumer Justice.
Then sit with a licensed lawyer in that state before anything is filed.
The calls are not weather. The file is the difference.
Knowledge Protects. You Decide.
Christopher Prosser, BA, AA, CLA, NP
Founder & CEO, TeleJustice Academy, LLC
telejusticepro.com · telejusticeacademy.com · telejusticeacademy.com/blog
Educational only. Not legal advice. Not a law firm. Consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before taking legal action.
IMPORTANT LEGAL DISCLAIMER
TeleJustice Academy, LLC is not a law firm. Christopher Prosser is a complex litigation paralegal, not a licensed attorney. This article is educational only. It is not legal advice, a case evaluation, or an attorney-client relationship. Evidence rules, recording statutes, and telemarketing codes change and differ by courthouse. An exhibit that works in Phoenix can be excluded in Chicago. Have a licensed attorney in your state review every document before you file or serve anything. Outcomes are never guaranteed.